As a runner, you’ve heard “no pain no gain” more times than you can count. Those words seemed like good advice — until your own knees started hurting.
That pain in your knee cap that you feel when running is known as patello-femoral pain, or PFP. Conventional treatment has involved retraining the runner to be more of a fore-foot striker, but this is often hard to achieve. New research from the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse shows that the use of an 11mm heel lift can reduce PF stress and pain. In the study, the lifts were worn under the sock liner of the shoe, attached to the foot bed with double sticky tape. The study was conducted using heel lifts from a sporting goods store which should provide support for the life of the running shoe.